My friend said all granite looks the same and I had to set him straight

We were hiking near Boulder last weekend and he pointed at a big rock face, calling it 'just more gray granite'. I told him it was actually Pikes Peak granite, full of big pink feldspar crystals you can see from the trail. He said it was just a rock and didn't matter, but that specific granite tells a story about how the mountains here formed. It really made me think about how people miss the details that make geology so cool. Do you have a go-to rock or mineral you use to explain why this stuff isn't boring?

2 comments

2 Comments

betht326d ago

Pikes Peak granite is a perfect example. What's your favorite rock formation that has a story like that? I always end up talking about columnar basalt from old lava flows.

milesrobinson6d ago

Oh man, I feel that. I once tried to explain why slate was cool and just ended up talking about chalkboards for ten minutes. I'm not the best at this.